New nuke protest

Some 13 residents of Shepperdine, living near the possible site of a new nuclear power station at Oldbury staged a five-hour protest to prevent contractors getting on to the land. Well done to them! They blocked the access road to a field near the existing Oldbury atomic plant until they were finally asked to move by police.

Munch Nuke by Russ

Power firm Eon has acquired land at Shepperdine with another company RWE and wants to build a £4-billion station. As we well know the process involved in getting permission will last for many years but as part of the initial site development work, small-scale ground investigation and seismic studies were due to have started on the Shepperdine land to help determine the type and best location for the foundations.

The residents have two key concerns at this stage – whether permission had been given by the British Geological Survey (BGS) for the drilling to take place and whether South Gloucestershire Council had given the all-clear for the compound and parking area to be created.

Protester Reg Illingworth is quoted in the Evening Post saying: "Ultimately, we don't want a new nuclear power station here. But this protest is solely about permission for the preliminary work and the compound, which has already been built. We want to know if consent has been given and if we see that in writing, then we will stand aside."

Alan Pinder, of the Green party and South Gloucestershire Friends of the Earth, was among the demonstrators. He is quoted saying: "We want to ensure Eon is going through the proper process. You have to do everything by the book if you are going to run a nuclear power station."

I suspect this is one of the first protests of many in building more nukes - an absurd decision that does nothing to help with climate change now when it is needed - indeed it is taking resources away from renewables at a time we should be becoming leaders in new technology....but hey I've written lots before on nukes so wont reopen that discussion here again!